Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 11 of Nawawi
Hadith number 11 of the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi, in a faithful English translation.
Updated on 10 September 2026 at 2:45 AM
📖 13 min readThis hadith belongs to the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him), the most studied hadith compilation in the world: foundations of faith, worship and character, all authentic narrations.
And Abu al-Hourayra as-Sa'di, the majority say his name is Rabi'a ibn Chibban; an-Nasai and Ibn Hibban authenticated him, and Ahmad paused on whether Abu al-Hourayra's name is Rabi'a ibn Chibban, and inclined to distinguish them. And al-Jawzajani said: "Abu al-Hourayra is unknown, unidentified."
This hadith is a fragment of a long hadith containing the mention of the qounout of the witr. And with at-Tirmidhi and others an addition in this hadith: "for truth is serenity, and lying is doubt." And the wording of Ibn Hibban: "for good is serenity, and evil is doubt." Imam Ahmad reported it with a chain containing an unknown, from Anas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt." And he reported it by another way better than this one, in suspended form upon Anas. At-Tabarani reports it from the narration of Malik, from Nafi', from Ibn Umar, in raised form. Ad-Daraqoutni said: "this hadith is narrated only from the word of Ibn Umar, and from Umar; and it is narrated from Malik from his word." It is reported with a weak chain, from Uthman ibn Atta al-Khurasani, who is weak, from his father, from al-Hasan, from Abu Hourayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that he said to a man: "Leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt." He said: "And how shall I know that?" He said: "When you want an affair, place your hand upon your chest: the heart stirs for the unlawful and rests for the lawful; and the God-fearing Muslim leaves the small for fear of the great." It is reported from Atta al-Khurasani in mursal form. At-Tabarani reports the like with his chain, weak, from Wathila ibn al-Asqa', from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), adding in it: "It is said: and who is the God-fearing one (wari')? He said: the one who stops at the doubtful." And this speech is reported in suspended form upon a group of Companions, among them Umar, Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them) and Abu ad-Darda. And Ibn Mas'oud said: "You aim at what makes you doubt, while around you are four thousand things that do not make you doubt?!"
And Umar said: "Leave the riba and the doubt (rayba)", meaning what you are troubled by, even without verifying that it is riba.
The meaning of this hadith goes back to stopping at doubtful things and guarding against them: pure licit produces no trouble in the believer's heart, trouble meaning anxiety and agitation, rather the soul settles into it and the heart is tranquil by it. As for ambiguous things, they bring to hearts anxiety and agitation generating doubt.
Abu Abd ar-Rahman al-Amri the ascetic said: "When the servant is God-fearing, he leaves what troubles him for what does not trouble him." Al-Foudayl said: "People claim the God-fearing scruple is extreme? And two matters never came to me but I took the severer of the two: leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt." Hassane ibn Abi Sinan said: "Nothing is easier than the God-fearing scruple: when a thing troubles you, leave it." And that is only easy for the like of Hassane (may Allah have mercy on him).
Ibn al-Moubarak said: the young servant of Hassane ibn Abi Sinan wrote to him from the Ahwaz that sugarcane was struck by a blight: "so buy sugar in what awaits you." He bought it from a man, and hardly any time passed before in what he had bought was a profit of thirty thousand. The sugar owner came and said: "O fellow, my servant had written to me and I did not inform you; would you forgive me what you bought from me?" The other said to him: "You have now informed me, and I made it pleasant for you." He returned, but his heart could not bear it, came to him and said: "O fellow, I did not intend this affair of my own accord; I love that you take back this sale." And he kept at him until he returned it to him.
Younous ibn Obayd, when he sought goods, spent and sent to buy, would say to whoever bought for him: inform the one you buy from that the goods were sought. Hicham ibn Hassan said: Muhammad ibn Sirin left forty thousand in a thing for which you see today no harm.
Al-Hajjaj ibn Dinar had sent food to Bassora with a man, and commanded him to sell it the day he entered at the day's price. His letter reached him: "I arrived in Bassora and found food undesirable, so I held it; the food rose and I added so much." Al-Hajjaj wrote to him: "You have betrayed us and acted contrary to what I commanded you; when my letter reaches you, give as charity to the poor of Bassora the entire price of that food: let me submit only if you do that."
And Yazid ibn Zouray' kept aloof from five hundred thousand of his father's inheritance and did not take it, his father administered works for the sultans. And Yazid worked palm fibers and lived from them until he died (may Allah have mercy on him). And al-Miswar ibn Makhrama had hoarded much food; he saw a cloud in autumn and disliked it, and said: "Do I not see myself disliking what benefits the Muslims?!" He vowed to take no profit in it, and Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was informed, and said to him: "May Allah reward you with good."
Herein: the hoarder ought to keep aloof from profiting from what he hoarded, hoarding being prohibited.
Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) explicitly stated keeping aloof from the profit of what did not enter his guarantee, entering into the profit of what he did not guarantee. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) prohibited it: Ahmad said, in a narration from him about him whose work is paid with its profit: "He gives in charity the wind." And he said in a narration from him about the profit of mouzaraba money: "If the partner contravenes therein, he gives it in charity." And he said in a narration from him, regarding one who bought fruit before its ripening with the condition of cutting, then left it until it ripened: "he gives it in charity", and in a narration from him, "in addition." A portion of our companions understood it as recommended, for charity of doubtful things is recommended.
It is reported from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that she was asked about the muhrim eating game, and she said: "They are but few days: what troubles you, leave it", meaning what is ambiguous to you, lawful or unlawful, leave it; for people differ on the lawfulness of the muhrim eating game when he did not hunt it himself.
By this one may argue that exiting the scholars' disagreement is better, for it is farther from doubt. But the realizers of knowledge among our companions and others hold that this is not absolute: for among matters of disagreement is what is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) as a license with no counter; following that license is more prior than avoiding it, even if that license did not reach some scholars who abstained from it for that.
And it is like one certain of purity and doubtful of invalidity: it is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that he said: "let him not depart until he hears a sound or finds an odor", especially if his doubt is in the prayer: he may not cut it, the prohibition of that being authentic, even if some scholars require it.
And if the license has a counter, either from another sunna, or from the community's practice against it, then the more prior is leaving to act upon it. Likewise if odd people among the people practiced it, and the practice against it spread in the community in the Muslim cities from the Companions' era (may Allah be pleased with them): taking what the Muslims practiced upon is the determinate; for this community was preserved by Allah such that the people of its falsehood appear not over the people of its truth; what practice manifested in the three preferred centuries is truth, and what is other is falsehood. And here is a matter to discern: refinement in stopping at doubtful things suits only him whose all conditions are upright and whose works resemble one another in piety and scruple.
As for one who falls into violating manifest forbidden things then wants to scruple over some finesse of doubt: that is not bearable for him, but is rejected of him, as Ibn Umar said to the one of the people of Iraq who asked him about the mosquito's blood: "They ask me about the mosquito's blood while they killed Houssayn, and I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: they are my two aromatic plants of the world?!" And a man asked Bachir ibn al-Harith about a man who has a wife and whose mother orders him to divorce her. He said: if he is good to his mother in everything and nothing remains of his goodness except divorcing his wife, let him do it; and if he is good to her by divorcing his wife then rises thereafter to his mother and strikes her, let him not do it. And Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about a man who buys bulgur and stipulates the palm fiber, meaning that with which the vegetable bundle is tied. Ahmad said: "What are these questions?" It was said: Ibrahim ibn Abi Nou'aym does that! Ahmad said: "If it is Ibrahim ibn Abi Nou'aym, then yes indeed." That resembles that. The one who rejected these questions is one whose state does not resemble; and as for the people of refinement in scruple, their state resembles this.
Imam Ahmad himself practiced in his own self this scruple: he commanded whoever bought ghee for him, who brought it upon a paper, to order returning the paper to the seller. Imam Ahmad would not dip from his companions' inkwells, but went out with his own inkwell to dip from it. A man sought his permission to write from his inkwell, and he said to him: write, and this is an obscure scruple. Another man sought his permission in that, and he smiled and said: "My scruple and your scruple have not reached this degree!" He said that in humility; otherwise he practiced in himself this scruple. And he rejected it upon one who had not reached this rank, but was tolerant in the manifest disliked things, and advanced upon doubtful things without stopping.
His saying (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) "for good is serenity, and evil is doubt" means that good, hearts settle into upon ambiguity, and evil brings doubt, and one does not settle into it. Herein is an allusion to returning to the hearts upon ambiguity, and more of this will come in the commentary of the hadith of "An-Nawwas ibn Sam'an", Allah the Most High willing.
Ibn Jarir reports from his chain, from Qatada, from Bachir ibn Ka'b, that he recited this verse: "Walk therefore upon its shoulders" then said to his maidservant: if you know what its shoulders are, you are free for the face of Allah. She said: its shoulders: its mountains. As if it was whispered upon his face, and he renounced his maidservant; he asked the people: some of them commanded him, and some forbade him; he asked Abu ad-Darda, who said: "Good is serenity, evil is doubt: cast what troubles you for what does not trouble you."
His saying in the other version "for truth is serenity, and lying is doubt" points to the fact that one should not rely on the word of every speaker, as in the hadith of Wabsa: "though the most judicious of people gives you his judgment, and gives you his judgment"; rather one relies on the word of the one who speaks truth. The sign of truth: hearts settle into it; the sign of lying: it brings doubt, hearts settle not into it, but recoil from it. From here, the people of reason in the Prophet's era (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when they heard his speech and what he called to, knew he was truthful and came with truth; and when they heard Moussaylima's speech, knew he was a liar and came with falsehood. It is reported that Amr ibn al-As heard before his Islam that it was claimed descended upon him: "O wild goat, O wild goat!! To you two ears and a chest, and you know, O Amr!" He said: "By Allah, I know you lie!"
An early one said: picture in your heart whatever you will, and contemplate it, then compare it to its opposite; for when you distinguish between the two, you know truth from falsehood, sincere from liar. He said: as if you picture Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and contemplate what he brought of the Quran, and read: "Do they not see the creation of the heavens and the earth, the alternation of night and day, the ships that sail the sea profiting the people, and the water Allah sends down from the sky reviving the earth after its death, spreading therein every creature, and the variation of winds and clouds subjected between heaven and earth: signs for people who reason", then you picture the opposite of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and find Moussaylima, and contemplate what he brought, and read: "O lady of the chamber... the couch is prepared for you", his word to Sajah when he married her, and you see this one, the Quran, of wondrous solidity blending into the heart and beautiful to hear, and you see that one, Moussaylima's word, cold, frivolous, obscene; you know Muhammad is true, come with revelation, and Moussaylima is a liar, come with falsehood.